Protozoid Slimer
The Protozoid Slimer (or just the Slimer) is an enemy in Duke Nukem 3D, and is often seen along with Protozoid Slimer Egg''s from which they hatch. The two are first encountered in the second level of Lunar Apocalypse, ''Incubator. Description The Protozoid Slimer is a nasty little creature. It may not seem very menacing from a distance, and indeed it isn't, but when it's latched itself to your head and is biting your face off, you'll think differently. These soft puddles of green goo are very stretchy, and often swarm in great numbers and attack the player without warning by dropping onto them from the ceiling. It hatches from Protozoid Slimer Egg''s, which technically count as enemies but do nothing more than incubate the vicious ''Protozoid Slimer''s. They are often guarded by Octabrains, which has led some people to believe that ''Protozoid Slimer''s and Octabrains are related. The ''Protozoid Slimer shares a number of traits with the facehuggers from the Alien movies. They both hatch from eggs, and latch onto another creature's face. Just as the facehugger is the first form of the adult alien, so the Protozoid Slimer is believed to be the infant form of the Octabrain. Appearance The Protozoid Slimer is little more than a green blob with a number of small tendrils around the sides. On the bottom of the Protozoid Slimer is a large mouth lined with jagged teeth. It is smaller than nearly every other enemy in the game (except for the Turret and possibly the Shark). It appears to have a small brain floating inside its body. The Protozoid Slimer Egg is a large oval egg which contains the Protozoid Slimer. It is grey in colour and stands upright, and is probably kept upright by what appears to be orange fungus or mold around its base. When it hatches, only the top half of the Egg is broken. It appears to be significantly larger than a Protozoid Slimer. It bears a striking resemblance to the eggs from which baby aliens are hatched, both in size and shape and in which part of it is broken when it hatches. Combat analysis *'Best weapon choice:' Mighty Boot (1 kick) *'Worst weapon choice:' RPG (1 rocket), Pipebomb (1 pipebomb), Devastator (1 rocket), Laser Trip Mine (1 mine) The Protozoid Slimer is slow-moving, and shuffles across the ground directly towards its foe. Sometimes it will stretch its immensely flexible body and attach itself to the ceiling, where it will crawl along as normal, or vice versa. The distance from the floor to the ceiling doesn't matter to the Protozoid Slimer - it can stretch any distance. Since the ceiling of a room is often darkened or high up, it makes a perfect place to creep around before dropping straight down on the target. The Protozoid Slimer can even crawl along underneath the surface of water. Despite their mobility, however, they cannot crawl along walls (likely due to a limitation of the Build engine). The Protozoid Slimer only has one attack method, and that is a point-blank assault of your face with its teeth. Once it gets close enough to its foe, it will jump and latch itself to the foe's face, blocking almost their entire field of view and biting at their face at the same time. While it is attached to a person's face, it is very unwise for that person to fire an explosive weapon at the Slimer. This is because the explosion will occur where the Slimer is, which is on the enemy, and thus cause significant or often fatal damage to that person. The Protozoid Slimer is extremely weak, and can be killed with one shot of any weapon. The best weapon to use is the Mighty Boot, since it doesn't waste any ammo and a Quick Kick will defeat the Slimer just as easily as any gun. A Quick Kick will also allow the player to use their regular weapon without having to switch just to deal with the Slimer. The Protozoid Slimer will attack any weaker being close to it. That is, it will attack and "consume" Assault Troopers, Assault Captains, Pig Cops, Assault Enforcers and Protector Drones. It will do nothing to any other enemy, and it will not purposely go for those enemies (it will only try to attack the player). A helpful strategy used by a number of players is to lure a Protozoid Slimer close enough to another enemy for it to consume that enemy and save the player the task of defeating it - however, this strategy is often unreliable. Consuming an enemy doesn't affect the Protozoid Slimer in any way. Protozoid Slimer''s tend to congregate in mutated and alien areas, underwater, and in air vents (and is the only enemy to be found in air vents). Upon the ''Protozoid Slimer's defeat, it will sometimes leave a toxic puddle on the ground, which inflicts a small amount of damage when it is stepped on without Protective Boots. *'Best weapon choice:' Any other *'Worst weapon choice:' Mighty Boot (2 kick), Laser Trip Mine (1 mine) The Protozoid Slimer Egg is stronger than the Protozoid Slimer itself, with 30 health (meaning 2 kicks or 4 Pistol shots), but that's all. It cannot move, and it cannot attack. As soon as the player encounters it, though, it will begin to hatch and release a Protozoid Slimer (always 1 per Egg). If the player is quick enough, though, they can destroy the Egg before the Slimer is released (the weapons listed as "worst choice" are most often too slow to use before the Egg hatches, even though they are certainly effective). The Protozoid Slimer Egg is vulnerable to any weapon. Once the Protozoid Slimer Egg has hatched, it does absolutely nothing. It can still be destroyed, though. The threat of Protozoid Slimer Egg''s comes from the fact that they always come in groups, and are often guarded by another enemy (usually the Octabrain). It is unlikely the player will be able to destroy all the ''Egg''s before any of them hatch. Notes * The ''Protozoid Slimer cannot be shrunk, although it is not immune to the Shrink Ray. If it is shot by the Shrink Ray, it will be destroyed instead. It is therefore the only enemy in the game that can be killed solely by the Shrink Ray blast. Data Protozoid Slimer |} |valign=top| |} |valign=top| |} |} Protozoid Slimer Egg |} |valign=top| |} |} Category:Duke Nukem 3DCategory:Enemies